Gartner L2 Ranks the Digital Performance of 58 Pet Care Brands Highlighting the Impact of Premiumization Within the Sector and How Legacy Brands Are Responding to Independent Players

NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital benchmarking firm Gartner L2 Inc releases its second annual Digital IQ Index: Pet Care US 2018 report.

The Gartner L2 report benchmarks the digital performance of 58 Pet Care brands operating in the US, providing best practices and key digital insights to help brands understand how digital is impacting the pet care industry. The Digital IQ Index methodology examines a brand's digital performance across four dimensions: Site & E-commerce, Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Mobile. Index brands are classified as either Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, or Feeble.

"CPG organizations are racing to capture the growth of the pet care industry," explained Jake Matthews, Director of CPG Research at Gartner L2. "With consumer spend on pets across digital channels increasing dramatically, CPG firms are looking at fast-growing pet care brands with e-commerce prowess as acquisition targets to drive growth among slowing legacy businesses."

Key findings from L2's report include:

Quality Over Price: Year-over-year, Google queries for unbranded terms across raw (e.g., "raw food diet for dogs") and dietary (e.g., "high protein dog food") categories grew by 32% and 5%, respectively, while searches for loyalty programs and promotions, including branded coupons, have declined.

Old Sites, New Tricks: As online shoppers in the pet care category increasingly demand high-quality ingredients, brands are tuning up by providing transparent product information across brand site experiences. Sixty-nine percent of Index brand sites now offer video content and informational articles, and just over half include a first-time-owner section to win over new pet owners.

Influencer Strategy: Fresh Step outperforms its peers across the social media dimension by investing in cat influencers on Instagram to promote its new product line. The brand's partnership with Nala Cat introduced their products to the feline's near 4 million followers and resulted in a doubling of their own Instagram follower count.

"As pet care shoppers continue to shift towards digital channels, brands must remain nimble in identifying, prioritizing, and scaling digital investments. To keep pace with evolving consumer preferences, brands must maintain an agile content pipeline and ensure that site experiences provide clear, robust product and ingredient information that facilitate product research and reinforce brand equity," noted Mark Fishman, Research Associate at Garner L2.

The report features case studies on brands including but not limited to: Amazon, Chewy, PetCo, Purina, Wag, Fromm Family Pet Food, CANIDAE, Wellness, and more.

To access a complete media-only copy of Gartner L2's Digital IQ Index: Pet Care Us 2018, contact johanna.azis@l2inc.com

About Gartner L2
Gartner L2 benchmarks the digital performance of over 2,200 brands across 12 industries globally. Our proprietary Digital IQ Index is the global standard for measuring digital competence. We analyze 1,250 data points to provide brands with actionable, data driven insights on their digital performance.

SOURCE Gartner L2